Avery's Journey
by Wowcolo
Summary: Avery, an average junior is filming a segment for his school's news program at the lake. When he forgets expensive equipment at the lake, he rushes back and ends up having the adventure of his life. Constructive Criticism is always welcome!
1. Prologue

Prologue

** "And I'm Tyler, and you're watching WHHS News!"**, said the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, journalism student standing in front of a lake.

**"That shot was perfect! I think we're finished here."** , said Avery, Tyler's best friend. Avery had short brown hair, and dark brown eyes. He always wore two shirts, despite the weather, and carried around a black jacket nearly every day of the year. He wasn't very outspoken, so you would often find him behind the camera, rather than in front of it.

Avery and Tyler had known each other since third grade, and since then, they had done almost everything together. Despite being best of friends, they were polar opposites of each other. Avery had short hair, Tyler's was shoulder length. Tyler was naturally social class clown, while Avery was the background kid, who only spoke when he had to. They both played a part in their high school's Journalism program, which was known as WHHS News.

**"So, Avery, did you grab everything?"**, asked Tyler as they were walking back to his car, which was parked on the side of the road next to the lake.

**"Yeah. Wait…."**, That's typical Avery for you, always forgetting something obviously important and hard to miss. **"Crap, I forgot the tri-pod! I'll be right back, and don't drive off without me this time!"**

**"Ah… Good times!", **said Tyler, remembering when he 'forgot' Avery at the mall when he had found out that Avery had left his favorite CD in a hotel room when he went on vacation.

Avery half-jogged his way back to the lake and paused when he got to the lakeside. He looked around, then again. His face turned to confusion as he could not locate the tri-pod anywhere on the ground. Then he spotted it. _Oh crap._ He thought. Out in the middle of the lake was the very expensive tri-pod the school let him borrow for class. _I'm so dead! Argh! Why can't I pay more attention? _ He thought it over for a second and could only come up with one solution. He had to go get it.

**"Gee…. This ought to be fun…"**, he said as he was stripping down to his boxers and t-shirt. He never was that fond of water, but he WAS fond of money, and losing some to replacing a tri-pod outweighed his fears. He slowly walked into the water and waded for a bit until finally setting off towards the tri-pod. _Did it HAVE to float to the middle of the lake? C'mon_! He thought as he was nearing the expensive piece of equipment. Then, to his horror, the tri-pod started sinking. **"Crap!" ** ,he said aloud. **"Stupid tri-pod, stupid lake, stupid water!"** He reluctantly went under the surface and was met by darkness. _Screw it._ _No way I'm going down THERE looking for the tri-pod. _Not like he had much of a choice. He suddenly felt as if he was becoming heavier, and started sinking. Slowly at first, then it became more rapid. **"Oh crap! HELP! TYLER HELP!"** , but it was no use. Tyler was back at his car waiting patiently with his radio volume on max. Eventually, his head went under and he couldn't see anything. He kept trying to swim back up, but he was being weighed down too much, and he continued sinking. _I guess this is the end._ He thought as he felt himself using the last bit of air.

Avery felt himself hit the bottom, expecting to die then and there, but instead was met by a bubble of air rise up and consume him. He looked around, confused, until he saw something that thoroughly scared the hell out of him. A giant koi was looking straight at him. The koi was completely black except for a white circle on its backside. Avery just sort of stood there in his literal personal bubble. The koi's eye's began to glow and it reached out a whisker towards Avery, and strangely, he reached back. When the whisker penetrated the bubble, it burst, and Avery panicked, until his hand made contact with the whisker. He no longer was dying for air, and he felt at home, mesmerized by the koi.

**[A/N: How did you like it? Should I continue with this? R&R **** - WC]**


	2. Where Am I?

**[A/N: I just thought I'd throw out that this is set about a day after where the series left off. –WC]**

Chapter One: Where am I?

After making contact with the giant koi, Avery lost consciousness. He woke up a few hours later next to a pond in a rural Earth Kingdom village, past sunset. As he opened his eyes, he slowly processed his surrounding, noticing he wasn't at the lake anymore. There were two people, a girl and a middle-aged woman sitting by him looking at him, and they were dressed very strangely.

"**He's waking up! Mother, look," **the small girl said as she tugged on her mother sleeves.

"**Quiet, Jia, try not to scare him." **She turned to look at Avery. **"Hello? Can you tell us your name? Where did you come from?"** The older woman said looking at him with concern and confusion.

"**Wh… where am I?"** was all Avery could mutter, and then he drifted off into unconsciousness again.

Avery woke up many hours later, and this time, he was in a small bad, in a dim candle-lit room. The only things in the room were a window, the bed, and a small table that held the candle. Recalling his encounter with the strange people earlier, he looked around to see if either was sitting in the room with him. They weren't. He looked down and noticed he wasn't in his boxers and undershirt anymore, but wearing a plain beige shirt, with pants to match, though they were a bit big on him. He rose from the bed and walked over to the window. He was on the second floor of a house in the same village he woke in earlier. In the distance he could see the pond, as well as a few small houses and stores in between.

"**How did I get here?" **he said, talking to himself while bringing his hand to his forehead.

Just as he was about to return to his bed, the door on the opposite side of the room opened, and the little girl from earlier came walking in, a tray of food in hand.

"**You're awake again!"**She said in excitement, almost dropping the tray of food in her hand. She walked up to Avery and handed him the tray and pushed him over to the bed. **"So…. What's your name? **

"**Uh… Avery… It's Avery." **He still didn't know where he was, or why he was willingly accepting the help of these strangers. **"Hey... Um, Jia is your name, right?"** She nodded. **"Well can you tell me where I am exactly?"**

"**You're in Sekitan, the closest village outside of Ba Sing Se's great wall!" ** She said as she beamed up at him.

_Sekitan? Ba Sing Se?_ He thought to himself. **"Um… where exactly in America is that?"**

"**America? What's America? This is the Earth Kingdom!" **she looked up with him in slight confusion.

"**What's the Earth Kingdom?" **And at that moment, the older woman walked in.

"**Oh good, you're awake." **She glanced down at his untouched tray of food. **"Go ahead and eat! You've been out since yesterday night."**

_Yesterday night? Oh crap. What is Tyler going to think? I bet they're looking all over for me. _He thought to himself. He finally took a look at his tray of food for the first time, and he thought he could recognize the meat as chicken. _Hm… I DO like chicken._ He thought to himself as his stomach reminded him he hadn't eaten in an entire day. He greedily grabbed the chicken and shoved it into his mouth.

"**So… Where are you from young man? You're the first of your kind to show up yet." **The older woman said to him as he was busy scarfing down the chicken

He quickly swallowed, almost choked on his chicken, then replied, **"I'm from a city called Northport, and what do you mean I'm 'the first of my kind to show up yet'?"** He looked at her with a confused look.

"**Northport? Is that in the Earth Kingdom? And as for your question, well, we've seen quite a growth in visitors since the war ended, but none had your… style… in clothing when we found you."**

Avery was puzzled for a second by her mention if his style, then realized she was talking about his boxers and undershirt, and his eyes went wide and he blushed a little. Still, something was bothering him. **"What is this Earth Kingdom you keep talking about? And what war?"**

"**Why my dear, the Earth Kingdom is one of the four, well rather three, nations. And how could you have not heard of the war? It was a century old until Avatar Aang ended it."**

Avery covered his face with his hands. _Oh no… Where am I? _He sat like that for a few seconds before returning his confused gaze to the older woman.

She returned his gaze with a worried look. **"You need to rest. I will wake you in the morning for breakfast. Come, Jia, let us leave this boy in peace."**

Jia, who had been silent nearly the entire time, looked up at Avery with a slightly confused expression before taking her mother's hand and walked out of the room.

Avery looked back down at the remnants of his chicken, and then placed the tray on the table with the candle. He returned to his bed and sat there for a while, processing the conversation he had with the middle-aged woman. _Four Nations? Avatar? Century old war? _These words, along with many others clouded his mind while he sat there. He wasn't sure when or how, but he began to get very tired and laid down in the bed. _Where am I?_ Was the last thought to enter his mind before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.


End file.
